So the idea is simple. Not everybody has camping supplies, and not everybody knows how to pick out camping supplies that would best suit their needs. This makes everyone who needs to buy these things have a better experience by handing the buying over to us and letting us pick the equipment best suited to desert camping. When the buyer arrives onsite and goes through the entrance line to get assigned their camping spot, happening spot, tshirt, badge, event schwag, drink wristband and smoking wristband we simply give them their equipment on top of all this.
Packages did not work very well for Feral, I hear. I don’t know what happened.
Personally, I am a fan of renting equipment. You could rent equipment that is around but not being used, or you could rent from a store, add your own fee on top, charge the deposit+fees to the camper online, and then refund the deposit once camp is over. But that is work.
An equipment-share forum could work too (like the ride-share forum). I actually have no idea how you plan on “housing”, per se. Everyone brings a tent and figures out who’s staying in it ahead of time?
EDIT: Also telling people where they could rent stuff in Oregon could be useful too.
Perhaps there could be a sharing tent at the camp, where people can buy things in bulk, put them in the tent, and then if someone else brought something they forgot and would like to use, they can do such.
This seems like a good opportunity to encourage attendee-to-attendee commerce.
To elaborate: Having a marketplace/etc seems like one of the most important ways CFT needs to differ from, say, Burning Man. It’s a huge reason for a lot of people to attend cons, and although it’d be silly to have a traditional art show or anything like that, supporting the types of commerce normal at furry conventions is something we should really try to work on.
I think it would be nice to have purchase options for stuff like eating utensils, flashlights and sleeping accessories (blankets and sleeping bags, pillows) and then all of it could be purchased and then given out at the con. Me and Coug always seem to forget to bring our own eating utensils (not this year damn it!) But I just don’t see it working out well for rentals. Rentals are tricky business!
I think the idea of a gear exchange forum is fantastic really, so I have modified the carpooling forum to include both. I’m writing up a list of MUST HAVE equipment that I will be posting there shortly.
IMHO, selling large items like tents and sleeping bags doesn’t seem like a very good idea; they’re not really “one size fits all” goods. What I need in a tent may be completely different than what someone else needs! For those things, I think some sort of “Resources” page, with links like the above to places to rent items or buy them for a range of prices, would be a better idea.
If you do sell items, I think consumables would be most appreciated. Things that are easy to forget but important for comfort, like toothbrushes/paste, sunscreen, deodorant, aloe, lip balm, insect repellent, flashlights and extra batteries. Basically the kinds of stuff you’d find at a campground with a general store. In fact, you could call the place you sell such things the General Store!
Anyway, just my $0.02.
EDIT: oops, I didn’t see the forum post about gear lists until after I wrote this. Removed the irrelevant bit!
[quote=“oCe, post:11, topic:32”]IMHO, selling large items like tents and sleeping bags doesn’t seem like a very good idea; they’re not really “one size fits all” goods. What I need in a tent may be completely different than what someone else needs! For those things, I think some sort of “Resources” page, with links like the above to places to rent items or buy them for a range of prices, would be a better idea.
If you do sell items, I think consumables would be most appreciated. Things that are easy to forget but important for comfort, like toothbrushes/paste, sunscreen, deodorant, aloe, lip balm, insect repellent, flashlights and extra batteries. Basically the kinds of stuff you’d find at a campground with a general store. In fact, you could call the place you sell such things the General Store!
Anyway, just my $0.02.
EDIT: oops, I didn’t see the forum post about gear lists until after I wrote this. Removed the irrelevant bit![/quote]
Through discussing here and elesewhere, really, selling people their primary gear does seem to be an impractical thing. Providing, however, I am still thinking about something along the lines of what you mentioned, of offering the small toiletry items, basically. It’ll come down to me eventually making up my mind and the staff willing to go with it, too! :3
